issue 27 Patch Notes for February 20th, 2024 - Issue 27, Page 7

[Uun]

• Epic > Fire Mastery > Melt Armor (Blaster/Brute/Scrapper/Stalker/Tanker) - -res Scale increased from scale 1.5 to scale 3. -Defense scale increased from scale 1 to scale 2

This patch note should be edited to include Dominators

[Murcielago]

Thank you Devs for this blessing. May RNJesus bless you. May you make billions in the Auction House. May your dreams be curated like an Aeon Experience.

[Perfidy]

On 2/21/2024 at 10:04 AM, Perfidy said:

Arsenal control and arsenal assault on a dom are ..interesting. But, there's some sort of disconnect between the description when you're about to choose Liquid Nitrogen and what you actually get. The description suggests some decent damage. But, from my combat log, it doesn't do any. Not even when they fall and bounce. It does accept damage enhancements, so you'd think you would see at least some sort of damage. 

I wanted to revisit this comment of mine. When I made it, the character was in the early 20s. Now, at level 39, on a solo mission, while the slotting of Liquid Nitrogen hasn't changed, perhaps the strength of the attuned set has changed the outcome. I did see it do some damage. The thing is - when leveling and I chose the power, the description, and the detailed info let me to believe this was a big damage dealing power. It's not. I still think it needs some revision or editing. 

I was going to bore you with my thoughts on each of the powers I chose, but figured it's just one man's opinion. I share it, and I open the door for someone to tell me I'm looking at it wrong and should look at it from a different perspective. 

[mrdeeds7]

Amazing job on all of this. From the new costume parts, power sets, to new stories. It's so cool to see this game continuing on and evolving. 

 

This morning I fought the new giant Kraken, and then battled some of the re-jigged Council. Incredible. 

 

Can't wait to see what lies ahead! 

 

Hopefully it's default flypose animation choice, and access to Grant Creston's hair :)

[WindDemon21]

Also the -fly on sleep grenade either isn't high enough, or is bugged because enemies keep flying right through/out of it.

[scarasyte]

On 2/21/2024 at 12:52 PM, Lockely said:

 

Absolutely not! Do you know how difficult it is to focus on AE when you're working on it in Pocket D? It's fine as a transport location, but trying to write and focus on story-based missions with all the powers going off around you, music blaring, and local chats spiraling by is doing AE creation on masochism mode.

 

I shouldn't have to mute my game volume and disable screen shake (that I will need to turn up to test my missions) every time I want to work on a story.

That's why I said, "But maybe keep a couple of them, for those who don't want to be blinded by player particles or something".  The "something" part at the end of that sentence should cover a broad range of other annoyances.

Edited February 24 by scarasyte

[BlackSpectre]

Quote

The "Apply Now" button in particular is extremely unhelpful. Most of the time it doesn't actually do anything, because many options take effect immediately. Some options however require the Apply Now button to take effect. Worse, there is a third class of options that appear to take effect immediately, but don't actually save unless you click Apply Now, and will be lost after logging out if you simply close the window. Future updates to the window are planned to address these issues, but for now the following adjustments have been made:

As long as we're thinking about the Apply button, would it be possible to fix the /FULLSCREEN command so that it activates the Apply Button? To be more specific, the /fullscreen 1 command activates the apply now button and puts the game into fullscreen mode, but /fullscreen 0 does not activate the apply button and does not put the game into windowed mode (and it really should). It would make switching between fullscreen mode and windowed mode a LOT easier, and I do that a lot, especially if I'm switching between computers or want to see other apps on my display alongside a windowed COH game. I have a set of binds made for each of my computers because I do this so often. 

Edited February 24 by BlackSpectre

[WindDemon21]

The tri-cannon is still pretty trash as well. Could we please get a fix for it soon. The taunt usually hurts more than it helps cause it splits the mob apart cause he doesn't go in melee. The one attack it has struggles a lot too where it still could use another attack like a mini-full auto cone or even just another ST attack like burst or something. I'd much rather it have those than to have it have a taunt aura which usually ends up hurting more than it helps.

[Spaghetti Betty]

So when are we getting Flat Mode as a PAP costume?

[twozerofoxtrot]

Was looking through the powers lists on COD to research the new LGTF HM and saw this:



This is bad and you should feel bad.  >:|

[Shin Magmus]

Well, Advanced Mode LGTF is great and I really appreciate the work on the new map.  Arse Control is still mid but it's certainly better than being trash.

 

My VEATs now reign Supreme over the game which is fun. 

[DrunkFlux]

Finally got around to fighting the new council, I liked the galaxy ones but I hated the dark eclipse archons, they res and the holds from my ice powers weren't working half the time, and it seemed like they had an auto-hit attack, died twice in one mission on 8x+3 solo (though the game put +4's and those were the ones that defeated me.) on effectively the same mob.  On a toon with every IO with as much defense as I could stack in every category, barrier, Inner will ect and still said blaster couldn't keep alive effectively.  I ended up putting in an extra kb protection IO before continuing.  Maybe I should have tested this all on beta or something.

 

An auto hit attack.....that hits hard as heck.  RIP defense users I guess.

 

The other things I liked, I also fought the CoT 8x+2 solo, they seemed a lot more fun as I simply had to react and watch that I was attacking the right mobs.  Though it wa sa cave and the mobs were rather scattered, though I don't try to fight in tar patches/quakes ect either.  Honestly they seem to be likely easier simply due to not having auto-hit abilities.  I like they got equivilants of Ruin, Madness and Agony mages(and nice touch with the huge explode power on near defeat, make me keep a distance).

 

CoT = fun to fight again(so far anyways), mobs debuff/cc patches is a nice touch so far as it can be moved out of(or teleport out of if immobed/slowed ect), I can react to them and they react to me, its fun.
Council = Why do they have to have an auto-hit attack?  Wasn't it bad enough Ralaruu had auto-hit mobs in abundance?  I mean do we really want them to be ludicrously hard now I dunno, I wasn't having fun fighting council once I moved from +2 to +3(and the game tossed +4's at me).  Simply the fact that the vampire archons are always going to turn into super warwolves(all of them in the entire map did this to me by the way), and seem to have extra high resistance to holds and can auto-hit occasionally before they turn, not very soloable anymore unless your stacked with dark resists.  At least, thats how I'm left feeling about it anyways.  I felt like it was all luck in the end and keeping a distance from the enemies so they don't auto-hit on me.

[Glacier Peak]

I didn't test these in beta, but with the Night Widow updates, I've managed to move around slots and squeeze an additional 200hp, additional recovery, more damage in Slash and Eviscerate, and around 15% res to all (except Psi) on mine with no trade offs. That's a pretty sweet update! I'll be playing my Fort build next to see if I want to respec.

[Shin Magmus]

On 2/22/2024 at 11:47 AM, Maelwys said:

Over the recent beta release candidate patches; Bonfire varied wildly.

It started out as a MAJOR nerf to KB chance (from 140% to 115%) in Release Candidate #1.
Then they reverted part of that nerf in Release Candidate #2 (raising it a bit to 120%) but introduced a ToHit Check for the damage component.
Release Candidate #3 (which made it to live) kept the changes from #2.

I can't find any hard numbers on the KB -> KD IO "reduced effect"changes themselves, but I did a fair amount of personal in-game testing on Brainstorm with my MM... and over a reasonable sample size (5 AE farming missions with several hundred mobs) the resulting flop rate of Level 50 - 54 mobs was very slightly less than it was on Live. The actual observed increase in foes staying upright within Bonfire's radius was only about 8% (and whether I used a 'Sudden Acceleration' IO and/or an 'Overwhelming Force' IO made no noticable difference; and neither did combining either/both of them with a 'Ragnarok: Chance for KD' Proc).

It was the other changes to the Epic Pool variants of Bonfire which have unfortunately resulted in my MM having to respec - the Epic Pool version of Bonfire was also hit with a vastly reduced Radius (25 -> 15ft) and Duration (45s -> 30s)... and that radius reduction in particular was enough to seriously cripple their performance. However neither of those changes affected the Controller/Dominator Primary version of Bonfire.

 

Thanks for checking all of this, because it was (and is) genuinely insane that Fire Control was nerfed at all this patch.  Imagine nerfing Fire Control of all things but not touching a single number on Plant Control: what a farce!  I understand why some of the devs might not want non-Control ATs to get such a powerful safety net in their epics, but 0% of that decision should have ever affected Controllers and Doms.

[Uun]

On 2/22/2024 at 5:47 AM, Maelwys said:

I can't find any hard numbers on the KB -> KD IO "reduced effect"changes themselves,

If you look at the Bonfire stats, there's a yellow tag next to the 120% chance to KB labeled "ReduceifKD". That links to the 3 KB>KD enhancements. In the enhancement stats, there's a corresponding tag next to an effect listed as "-100% Power Chance Mod". I don't know if that means the 120% is reduced to 20%, or the math works some other way.

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pets.bonfire.bonfire&at=minion_pets

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=boosts.attuned_sudden_acceleration_f.attuned_sudden_acceleration_f&at=controller

[Uun]

3 hours ago, Uun said:

If you look at the Bonfire stats, there's a yellow tag next to the 120% chance to KB labeled "ReduceifKD". That links to the 3 KB>KD enhancements. In the enhancement stats, there's a corresponding tag next to an effect listed as "-100% Power Chance Mod". I don't know if that means the 120% is reduced to 20%, or the math works some other way.

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pets.bonfire.bonfire&at=minion_pets

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=boosts.attuned_sudden_acceleration_f.attuned_sudden_acceleration_f&at=controller

BTW, it appears that they attached this tag to other powers not mentioned in the patch notes, including Force Field/Repulsion Field, Kinetics/Repel, Storm/Tornado, Storm Blast/Jet Stream and Singularity/Repel.

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/tags.html?tag=reduceifkd&q=bears

[DrunkFlux]

On 2/21/2024 at 7:01 PM, Neuronia said:

Finished a 1* LGTF a few hours ago and it's so fun. A lot less annoying than ITF with the Nictus possessions and stuff. A lot of the stuff is avoidable and rewards team play and the new dialogue/cut scenes/map architecture is sublime. You have done very well, this is VIP level content under the old system and we're just getting it so....thank you very much!

 

I'll have to give it a try sometime then, as the hard-mode ITF and nictus possession, things feeling unavoidable was a major quit moment for me when it comes to hard mode content, I played hard mode ITF once and then never touched it again after that.  Although it was also the cysts blowing up 1-shotting my bio armor stalker who actually wasn't fully incarnated out and only half IO'd (still 50), that wasn't the best idea, but it made me feel I had to bring toons in who were 100% perfect to do any hard mode content after that, and by the time I had more i felt were ready everyone was only doing 4* with barrier stacking on all toons.

[DrunkFlux]

3 minutes ago, Uun said:

BTW, it appears that they attached this tag to other powers not mentioned in the patch notes, including Force Field/Repulsion Field, Kinetics/Repel, Storm/Tornado, Storm Blast/Jet Stream and Singularity/Repel.

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/tags.html?tag=reduceifkd&q=bears

 

This is, beyond words, cruel.  Like Cyptic nerfing everything not-healing in CO cruel.

[Luminara]

5 minutes ago, Uun said:

BTW, it appears that they attached this tag to other powers not mentioned in the patch notes, including Force Field/Repulsion Field, Kinetics/Repel, Storm/Tornado, Storm Blast/Jet Stream and Singularity/Repel.

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/tags.html?tag=reduceifkd&q=bears

 

Those aren't new.

[Maelwys]

3 hours ago, Uun said:

If you look at the Bonfire stats, there's a yellow tag next to the 120% chance to KB labeled "ReduceifKD". That links to the 3 KB>KD enhancements. In the enhancement stats, there's a corresponding tag next to an effect listed as "-100% Power Chance Mod". I don't know if that means the 120% is reduced to 20%, or the math works some other way.

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pets.bonfire.bonfire&at=minion_pets

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=boosts.attuned_sudden_acceleration_f.attuned_sudden_acceleration_f&at=controller

Yeah there's something else going on that we're not seeing, like perhaps a minimum % chance floor.

According to CoD; Repel and Whirlwind both have "110% chance to Knockback" compared to Bonfire's "120% chance to Knockback". So if the KB>KD IOs are really applying a flat -100% reduction to the chance value then Bonfire's would be reduced to 20% and Repel to 10%. However in reality after you slot a KB>KD IO into the power they're both roughly equal in how often they actually Knock a critter over! ( I've only tested Repel and Whirlwind on a few farming missions on Brainstorm; but they are definitely not half as effective as Bonfire. Each applied hundreds of KDs over the course of each asteroid map; and as far as I could see the variance really just came down to how tightly mobs were clustered...)

[Uun]

6 minutes ago, Luminara said:

Those aren't new.

I'll take your word for it, but I couldn't find a mention of the change in the current or previous patch notes.

[Maelwys]

1 minute ago, Uun said:

I'll take your word for it, but I couldn't find a mention of the change in the current or previous patch notes.

Top right of CoD --> "Switch to Alpha Data".
That Database is dated April 2023 and the tag is still present.
 

[Luminara]

21 minutes ago, Uun said:

I'll take your word for it, but I couldn't find a mention of the change in the current or previous patch notes.

 

ReduceIfKB was created in the SCoRE era.

 

Quote

The following powers have their chance to Knockback reduced to 10% every 0.5s (unless otherwise noted) if slotted with Sudden Acceleration: Knockback to Knockdown:

·         Controller Buff / Force Field / Repulsion Field

·         Controller Buff / Kinetics / Repel

·         Controller Buff / Sonic Debuff / Sonic Repulsion

·         Corruptor Buff / Force Field / Repulsion Field

·         Corruptor Buff / Kinetics / Repel

·         Corruptor Buff / Sonic Resonance / Sonic Repulsion

·         Defender Buff / Force Field / Repulsion Field

·         Defender Buff / Kinetics / Repel

·         Defender Buff / Sonic Debuff / Sonic Repulsion

·         Epic / Force Mastery / Repulsion Field

·         Mastermind Buff / Force Field / Repulsion Field

·         Mastermind Buff / Sonic Resonance / Sonic Repulsion

·         Pets / Bonfire / Bonfire (40% every 2s)

·         Pets / Tornado / Tornado

·         Pets / Singularity / Repel (0% chance)

·         Pool / Speed / Whirlwind

 

That's from the SCoRE patch note archive.

[Uun]

So it looks like Bonfire with KB>KD went from 40% chance every 2s to 20% chance every 1s (both primary and epic versions).

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, Uun said:

So it looks like Bonfire with KB>KD went from 40% chance every 2s to 20% chance every 1s (both primary and epic versions).

Which would imply very little has actually changed in terms of the average number of times a foe will find itself knocked on its back over the duration of a bonfire patch... which is in line with my testing! 🍻
It also helps explain some of the disgruntled Fire Controller/Dominator comments we've been seeing here since there'd now be a halved chance for Bonfire to immediately KD a group of Foes upon casting (albeit a much better chance for it to snag a foe that enters the patch for less than 2 seconds!). However 1 second after that initial spike it immediately evens out; and if anything the Knockdown rate over time has become a bit less streaky.

Factoring in the Activation Rate definitely looks like what I was missing above; since Whirlwind and Repel both have an activation rate of 0.5s to Bonfire's 1s.
That also suggests the patch might technically be a buff to Bonfire's KB rate if  you're not slotting it with a KB>KD IO... (140% KB chance every 2s vs 120% KB chance every 1s?)

...I'm still annoyed about the reduced radius in the Epic Pool version of Bonfire, but at least they're reverting the duration nerf (hurrah!) and testing has proven that I can get largely the same effect as before by simply casting Fireball (albeit slotted with Ragnarok and Superior Frozen Blast Procs...) more often! 🤣 
 

Edited February 25 by Maelwys